Breath of Life
by FaithfullyFallen417
Summary: The guys are all quiet and Finn tries to stop it before it happens but then there is a sickening crack and Rachel Berry slumps down to the tiled floor. AU Finchel, rated high T


_A/N- This is AU, what else do you expect from me and also based on a prompt I saw on tumler_

**Breath of Life**

"_And although I wasn't losing my mind_

_It was a call that was so sublime_

_But the room is so quiet, oh oh oh_

_I was looking for a breath of life_

_A little touch of heavenly light_

_But all the choirs in my head say, no oh oh"_

Everyone knows who Rachel Berry is; she is the most annoying girl in school and always trying to see the 'best' in people. She was the freak with two dads and she actually walked around being proud of something like that. She was loud, obnoxious, spoiled and so oblivious to the fact that people hate her. Rachel Berry also was nosy, so nosy that she found out about something that she should not know and today she was going to pay for that.

"Jesus, Hudson, you can't be pussying out on us now!" Noah Puckerman grumbled as he pulled his black hoodie on. Finn looked around at his 3 friends and cleared his throat.

"I don't know man, she seems nice and harmless." He turned to Dave. "What did does she know?"

Dave shook his head. "I-it doesn't matter, she is a nosy bitch that needs to be taught a lesson." Dave pushed as he looked at Azimio. "C'mon, there she is now."

Finn looked up and saw Rachel Berry getting her things out of the locker. He smiled because she was the only one that would care about getting all her homework done on spring break. Puck nudge him and he saw that she was walking away from her locker and entering the stair well. The four boys take off in a sprint to catch up to her.

She is humming to herself before she gets pushed up against the cold wall and then she lets out a scream and Dave puts his hand over her mouth. "Shut the Fuck up bitch!" Dave growls as he presses her harder into the tiled wall. Tears fill her big brown eyes as she looks around for some sort of help.

"Dude, stop you are hurting her!" Finn exclaims and Dave rolls his eyes as Azimio laughs. Finn looks at him in confusion. "What?"

Azimio is wiping tears from his eyes. "Holy shit man, you got a thing for this girl?" Finn looks over at Rachel who is now looking at him with pleading eyes. "Damn boy this is good."

"What!" He plays off. "No I don't have a thing for her, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Azimio smirks at his friends. "Nah you do and since she is here, all alone, we can do what we want with her." Azimio says as he pulls Dave away from her as Puck holds on to her. "She practically asks for it, prancing around in those short skirts…don't you Berry?"

Rachel's eyes go wide because she knows exactly what he is talking about and Finn does as well. "No, no please don't" She pleads and Finn has never seen this girl be so broken.

"C'mon Huddy, it's time to man up." Azimio said with a smirk and bunches up her skirt and forcefully grabs Finn's arm and places it on Rachel's bare thigh. Rachel's body shivers under Finn's hand as his whole body heats up. "And here she is, ripe for the picking."

Finn shakes his head no and removes his hand. "I'm not going to do that." He says, "This is getting too fucked up and we should just let her go. I still don't understand why you wanted to do this Dave."

Dave shakes his head and starts to unbuckle his belt. "Fine, if you want to be a pussy then I'll do it."

"No!" Rachel screams as tears stream down her face. "No, David, I'm sure your friends will accept you no matter what and…"

Dave's face starts to turn red. "Shut the fuck up Berry."

"They won't care about it if they are your real friends…" She pushes

"I said shut the fuck up!" Dave roared

But she keeps going and Finn wishes she would just stop. "No one will care that you're gay David!"

The guys are all quiet and Finn tries to stop it before it happens but then there is a sickening crack and Rachel Berry slumps down to the tiled floor. Finn's eyes go wide and everyone else starts to panic.

"What the fuck man!" Puck shouts with his hand on his head. "You fucking killed her."

"We gotta hide the body, I can't go to jail!" Amizio starts with his hands on his head.

Dave is now crying and cursing as Finn walks over to her motionless body. He pales when he doesn't feel a pulse. His hands start to shake as he runs them through her hair. "I'm so sorry." He whispers and them he feels Amizio push his shoulder.

"Pick her up man; we are going into the woods."

Finn scoops her small frame into his arms, feeling sick to his stomach. What would his mom think if she found out about this? He follows his so called 'friends' out into the stormy night wishing that he had said something earlier.

~FR~

She couldn't believe what had just happened one moment she felt the worst pain in the world and the next moment she was standing right beside her body, her own body looking down as Finn Hudson picked up her un-moving one. "No," She whispered.

"Pick her up man; we are going into the woods."

Rachel looked over at Amizio and shook her head. "No," She watched as Finn picked her up. "No Finn don't do it."

Then she saw something that she least expected to see, her fingers twitched. "No! Finn! I'm still alive!" She screamed but no anvil, no one could hear her…no one could see her.

~FR~

He was guilt ridden to the point where he was locking himself in his room and not coming out. Spring Break was supposed to be filled with beach trips and getting drunk at parties but not for Finn Hudson. He was spending his spring break sitting on his bed looking at year books. Rachel Berry was in every single club and in every single picture. He really never noticed how pretty, no beautiful she was and how bright her smile was. He put down his junior year book and lay back down on his bed, running a hand through his hair. "I wish I did something," He murmured as he closed his eyes, tears being to fill them again.

"You can do something." Rachel said. She had been 'haunting' Finn for two days now and he still couldn't hear her. She lay beside him on the bed and turned on her side, putting a hand on his chest. "Come on Finn, I know you're a good guy. I'm still alive please!" She pleaded and he continued to cry and she sighed, some of her breath hitting Finn's neck. Then his eyes snapped open and he turned his head, looking her straight in the eye. "Finn?" still nothing. He reached his hand out and put it on her head. She closed her own eyes as his hand went through and he pulled it back quickly. She opened her eyes again and saw that his own eyes where wide. "You-you can feel me can't you?"

He jumped up from his bed. "Oh my God, you can hear me."

"Get out of my head." He moaned as he placed his hands over his ears. "God, I'm going crazy."

Rachel stood up to. "No, Finn…no you are not going crazy. I'm right here!"

He shook his head and opened unlocked his bedroom door, Rachel slumped down on his bed. "I know you can hear me."

~FR~

A shower, that will clear his head. He turns the hot water all the way up and lets the room fill with steam. His mind wanders as he presses his head against the tiled wall and he closed his eyes he was pretty sure he heard her voice and he was pretty sure he had been hearing it since they hid Rachel's body in the storm drain. But soon the mental image of Rachel, just a few minutes before Dave's deadly blow flooded into his mind. God she looked so scared. His eyes snapped open at the feeling of a cool breeze and turned his head ever so slightly to see a female figure outside his shower curtain. His breathing starts to go shallow and he turns off the water as he carefully grabs his towel off the hook. When Finn moved the shower curtain aside he sees her. Rachel Berry is standing right in front of him dressed in the same clothes she wore the day when he placed her in the storm drain. She is looking at him with her large eyes and he blinks his own, hoping to make her go away.

"I knew it!" She exclaims. "You can see me!"

"No, no you are just in my head I can't see you." Finn points out and she shakes her head.

"You can see me because I am still alive Finn, that blow didn't kill me but if you leave me in that drain I will die." Rachel explained and Finn shook his head.

"You had no pulse." He deadpanned

"It is faint…" He walked past her and she actually grabbed him, stopping his actions and giving him goose bumps. "You can hear me, see me, and feel me." She asserted. "I'm alive Finn and out of all of those people that you call friends you are the only one who can do something."

"What can I do?" He croaks.

"Get me out of the storm drain." She commanded and Finn nodded rushing out of the bathroom to get dressed.

~FR~

She appears in the passenger seat of his truck when he least expects it. She shimmers in and it's the most beautiful thing he has ever seen she looks over at him as the rest of the white lights shimmer away from her and smiles. Finn smiles back, hoping that she is right, that she is still alive.

She runs behind him, going through trees and everything, it's a pretty cool thing to see. Then Finn literally stumbles onto the storm drain but gets up before she can notice. "Rachel!" He yells. "I found it" and he starts moving the heavy steel lid as Rachel stands next to him. Once it's moved, Rachel's face falls and Finn contorts. Her body was not there anymore, he looked at her with guilty eyes. "Rachel, I don't know…"

"They moved it." She muttered. "Why would they move it?" She asks, looking at her lonely shoe.

Finn clenches his fists. "I'll find it Rachel, I swear."

She nods, holding back tears…yeah who knows that she could actually still feel emotional pain. "Finn?" She whispered as he started to walk away. "C-can I," She gulped. "Can I stay with you until you find me?"

Finn shoulders fell and he nodded, it was the lease he could do for her. "Yeah sure."

~FR~

She gets back to the house before he does and he freezes when he sees her sitting in front of his mom at the dinner table. His mom looks up at him from her tea and Finn walks up the stairs. Rachel watches as Carole Hudson's head drops and she wants to reach out to comfort the woman. "Don't worry Mrs. Hudson, he will come back to you."

Carole sighs. "God, Chris, what am I going to do."

Rachel raises an eyebrow and then figures out she is talking to Finn's dad, she listens even though she should not be.

"I'm so scared, what if he goes down the wrong path. I don't want to lose him either."

Sadness fills Rachel's eyes. "You will never lose him; I'm going to make sure of that." Rachel promises as she touches the older woman's hand. She looks up, straight at her and then back to her tea and for some reason, Rachel feels connected to the woman that couldn't see her.

Her eyes then linger to the paper right next to the woman, she is on the front page. Rachel read the head line that said. "Local Girl missing for two days, search parties are being called to look for her." Rachel closed her eyes and when she opened them she was in Finn's room. He was sleeping now and covered in dirt. She walked over to the bed and once again lay down next to him, counting the freckles on his nose. Sure he was very attractive but his friends where complete assholes. She wondered why Finn hung out and why he was so weak around them. "Your stronger then all of them." She whispered as she touched his face, her hand going right through. Finn shivered and she withdrew her hand quickly as he slowly woke up.

"Didn't anyone tell you that starring was impolite?" He mumbled and for the first time in two days she smiled.

"I know my manner's Finn" She teased. "They just don't count when you're in limbo."

He snorted. "True," His eyes narrowed as he studied her. "I never hated you Rachel."

"You sure acted like you did." Rachel grumbled and Finn shook his head.

"I actually think you are kinda awesome." He confessed. "I mean you walk around as these people torment you with your head held high because you know you are going to get yourself out of this town. I wish I could do that."

She smiled at him. "Sometimes it gets to me…but I know that it my heart that the bullies only do it because they feel sad themselves."

"Like Dave?" Finn asks and Rachel nods. "Then like me?" and she shook her head no. "Why not?"

"Because you are going to become something special, I can feel it." She tells him and he smiles.

"I wish I would have given you a chance." He expresses

"I know" She replies.

It's silent between them for a while until he finally confesses. "I wish I could touch you."

"Me too" She softy says as she watches him fall back asleep. "Me too"

~FR~

He wakes up to see that she is no longer beside him and he freaks out a little, what if she moved on during the night or what if her body was found and she was in some hospital somewhere. He took the stairs two at a time and saw his mom watching the news. "Mom!" He exclaims and she looks over at him.

"Still no news on that poor Rachel girl." His mom mutters as she sips her coffee. "I hope they find her."

Well if they didn't find her body then…oh no.

"Finn?"

He whirled around and saw her standing behind him. He smiles like a complete dufus and then looks back at his mom. "I'm going over Puck's ok?"

"Ok, be careful." His mom warns as Finn walks out the door. Rachel sighs and closes her eyes, appearing right next to him in the truck.

"Why are you going to Puck's" She asks and Finn frowns.

"He moved your body, him and the other two they moved it and I am going to make them tell me where they put you." He says as he grips the steering wheel. "Where did you go?"

"To visit Santana." She tells him

"Lopez?" He asks.

"The one and only, after Dave outed her in front of the entire high school population I befriended her." She explained as she looked down at her hands. "She was crying a lot when I saw her, people think I'm dead Finn."

He shook his head. "No, I'm not giving up hope Rachel."

She smiled to herself. "Thank you Finn."

~FR~

Puck's mom isn't home when he pulls up so he uses it to his advantage. As soon as Puck opens the door he grabs the collar of his shirt and slams him against the mantel. "Where is she?" He roars and Pucks looks a scared as a deer in hunting season.

"What the fuck are you talking about man?" Puck yells.

"Rachel, where did you move her? Where is she?" He hollered

Puck was actually shaking in fear. "Dave said we should move her"

"And where did you move her!" Finn screamed as he shoved him again.

"I don't know, Dave said something about the dam." Puck rushed and Finn let him go.

"The dam?" He questioned, panic rising in his tone as he looks back at Rachel.

Puck nodded, from what Rachel could tell he was guilt ridden to. "I didn't help them because…I can't do this shit anymore and…" He watches as Finn turns around. "Where are you going?"

"To save Rachel, she is still alive!" Finn shouts back and slams the door behind him, he doesn't ignore the blush appearing on Rachel's face as he yelled at Noah Puckerman.

~FR~

He is pretty sure that he broke every single speeding law while driving to the bridge and when he gets there he sees Amizio and Dave getting back into the car.

"Hey Hudson what's up?" Amizio asks and Finn swings, fist connecting with jaw.

"Where the hell is she!" He roars and Dave looks panicked as Amizio struggles to get up.

"Why the fuck do you care?" Amizio yells. "She is dead, we checked that night."

Finn shook his head and looked over the bridge. "No she is not dead."

"How the hell do you know?" Dave questions

"Because for the past two days she has been around me and when I find her I'm taking her to the hospital and explaining everything." Finn told them as he found her body lying on some rocks.

"The fuck you are!" Dave scowls and Rachel screams. Finn turns around to see Dave holding a gun to him. Amizio starts to freak out and Dave is shaking like a leaf. "I'll do it, I swear I'll do it!"

"Finn!" Rachel screams and all three teen boys turn around.

"What the hell."

"Jesus Christ."

Finn felt like smiling, they could see her. "Told you." And he ran off to get Rachel away from the rocks before the current washed through. He turned to see Dave running after him, shooting the gun at him and then a searing pain went through his arm and he looked to see that he had been shot in the shoulder and the side. He tried his best to ignore the pain as he reached the bank, lucky for him, a passerby drove in front on Dave and restrained him. Finn reached her body that was already halfway in the water, with his good arm her grabbed her and dragged her out of the cold water. "Rachel." He murmured checking her pulse. Her heart was still beating but faintly and her breathing was slow and shallow. He turned his head to see her spirit fading and then completely disappearing. "Rachel?" He croaked as things started to get dizzy. She then took a deep shuddering breath and Finn smiled. "You're ok Rachel, you ok" He assured her as sirens rung out through the air, then everything went black.

~FR~

"_How are the girl's vitals?"_

"_She is stable but the boy is in critical condition"_

Her head hurt like crazy as she cracked open her eyes to see lights flashing above her eyes. She turned her head and saw Finn. "Finn" she croaked. She turned her head to see that EMT that was talking to the doctor.

"He was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the side and losing a lot of blood."

The doctor nodded. "Nurse I need you to let Carole know this is her son and inform the Berrys that their daughter has been found.

She didn't want to but she succumbed back to sleep, she just wanted to know if Finn was ok.

~FR~

He wakes up two weeks later and his body totally kills. He looks around the hospital room to see that it is fill with balloons, flowers, and cards. His mom shoots up when she notices that he is awake and calls in the doctor so he can take the breathing tube out of his throat. Once that was done and over with he turns to his mom and croaks. "Where's Rachel." It hurts to talk and the doctor tells him it's because of the tube.

"She checked out last week Finn, that was very brave of you. She came by everyday…" His mom looks at him and trails off. "I'm going to call her and let her know you up."

She leaves the room and he watches as the doctor writes stuff on his clip board. "You are very lucky" He explains, the bullet missed you stomach by an inch." The doctor smiled. "Looks like you have someone looking out for you." He continues looking at his chart. "Well looks like we will be able to release you soon but not too soon, we have to make sure that throwing arm of yours is still working."

~FR~

He ends up leaving the hospital four days later and his mom tells him that her boyfriend Burt would be picking him up so he should wait outside. So he packs the stuff he has left into a duffle back and swings it over his good arm. He was kinda upset that Rachel didn't visit him after he woke up maybe she was scared. His mom did tell him everything that she knew what happened because Rachel talked to the police. His mom also said how lucky his was that she didn't press charges on him. Dave was going to jail and so was Amizio. Puck was in some rehabilitation center because he tried to kill himself and he would be let out in a month.

But as he walked out into the May sun he got himself a pleasant surprise, because right in front of him was Rachel Berry with a smile as big as the sun on her face. She looked so much better than she did when he pulled her from the river. Her skin regained its color and her lips where no longer was blue, her hair shiny and straight and she had stiches on her forehead but she didn't seem to mind. "Hi!" She brightly said.

"Hi" Finn replied.

"I was wondering if you could help me out," She said, walking closer to him. "I'm looking for this guy who is about your height, with messy brown hair…and this is going to sound crazy but he could see me when no one else could."

Finn smirked. "Really because I'm looking for this girl who kinda reminds me of you, short with really long hair and these huge brown eyes…and this is going to sound nuts to but she haunted me for about two days."

Rachel tapped her finger to her chin. "Hmm well it looks like we are in the same situation."

"Yeah it does, but there is only one thing" Finn said as he smiled. "I think I might have fallen in love with her."

"And I think she might have fallen in love with you." She replied.

"Really?"

Rachel nodded. "Really, hi Finn."

He gave her a crooked grin as he got closer to her. "Hi Rachel," He looked down at her lips. "Can I kiss you now?"

She giggled and nodded her head. "Only if you want to."

Finn gave a playful growl as he pulled her flush against him with his good arm and kissed her with all the feelings he stored up just for her. They mutually pulled away from each other and Rachel snuggled into his chest. "You have no idea how long I wanted to do that." He admits.

"What, to touch me?" She asks

Finn shakes his head. "No, to love you."

And from then on, they are a couple. Burt ends up asking his mom to marry him and Rachel is in the wedding, she even sings at the reception. It was a journey song, Faithfully, and as she sings her eyes are on Finn. After the wedding, their junior year goes smoothly they do get into little arguments but it's usually about something stupid like his choice for the movie or her choice for the dinner. In senior year, he loses his virginity to her and her to him and it's the most awesome thing because she is just so beautiful and he loves her so much that it hurts. And then, on their graduation day, Finn pops the question, he asks her to marry him. She replies with a tearful yes and peppers his face with kisses.

They move to New York together, Rachel along with Finn's step brother Kurt goes to NAYDA and Finn goes to NYU. They marry each other in their junior year and after they graduate Finn gets drafted into the NFL and Rachel gets her first starring role in a Broadway production of Mary Poppins, playing Mary.

One night, they are lying in bed and Rachel asks. "What are we going to tell our kids when they ask us how we met?"

Finn blinks, then narrows his eyes because he really never thought about it. "I donno, um how bout Mommy was Casper and Daddy was a ghost buster."

Rachel laughs.

"Why?" He asks and then notices the smile on her face. "You're pregnant?" He breathes and Rachel nods. He pulls her into the biggest hug and then presses a kiss onto her lips. "I love you baby."

Rachel leans up and caresses his cheek. "I love you two." She nuzzles into him. "And I always will."


End file.
